And A HeartShaped Crab
by Katez-chan
Summary: She was going to give him sweets for Valentine's Day, until she found out his favourite food was ramen... DEAD, or nearly so. Might write the next chapter in time for V-day NEXT YEAR. xD


...and a Heart-shaped Crab 3

Short summary: she was going to get him sweets for Valentine's day, until she found out that his favourite food was ramen...

Long summary: V-day fic. Hinata really likes Naruto (as we all know), but she's really shy so she decides to express herself with a gift; when she discovers his favourite food is ramen, she decides to try and make it from scratch. Cooking hilarity ensues.

Katez-chan: Hehe, first Naruto fanfic! I have now gone past the point of no return... No, I did that when I started creating OCs and drawing doujinshi... xD Please note; in this story Sakura plays the part of the match-maker; I think she's just trying to get Naruto out of her [gloriously shortened] hair.

Disclaimer: I totally do own Naruto, which is why SasuSaku is canon and Hayate survived. Also, Naruto is Hokage and Gaara really has a soft heart under all that hardened sand. ...No. I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. Okay? You still gonna sue me? No? Good.

* * *

=F=E=B=R=U=A=R=Y=

It contains the last of the snow. It contains the beginning of tiny buds and a slight warmth that lingers only in the brightest rays of sunlight. It contains ghostlike fingers of breath floating, visible, in the air. It contains ice cold water streaming all too fluidly through gutters and down the slight furrows in the streets. It holds in its glittering hands, its 28 days, droplets of melted ice on windowpanes and needles of light glancing off droplets clinging to the twigs of yawning saplings. It contains shimmering streets, wet and gleaming and covered in the last of the sodden leaves and intricate lace skeletons from the previous autumn. It also contains **Valentine's Day. **

Valentine's- a day when hopeful girls and awkward, crushing boys desperately try to impress, seeing this one day as their single, solitary chance to catch the eye of their beloved-- as if they were not as special on any other day. But some simply feel obliged to get a gift for the one they love on that day and not to attempt to start something new.

One who is trying to start a new relationship may gravitate toward another such person.

Two girls walked down the unfreezing streets side-by-side.

One, the short strands of her bright golden-pink hair tumbling over her cheeks, flushed with cold, was quite open about her intentions, grinning and laughing freely.

The other was dressed much more warmly than her canvas-clad companion in a furry jacket, her short, glossy black hair almost hidden in the sandy brown-and-white fibers of her fur hood. She spoke infrequently, quietly and shyly, as if afraid.

"So what are you going to give Naruto for Valentine's day?" Her chipper pink-haired friend asked.

"Ah... I... how did you..."

"It's obvious," the shivering rosette sighed. "The question is if you're actually brave enough to give him anything..."

The raven child fidgeted, tapping her forefingers together in her personal sign for "Um, awkward...."

"Uh... I was thinking... you know... candy, maybe?"

The pink-haired girl stopped dead and snapped her fingers, staring straight ahead.

"I just had a _brilliant_ idea."

"Huh?" the other stopped too, taken aback.

"His favourite food is ramen, right?"

"It... is?"

"So you should make him ramen for Valentine's Day."

"That doesn't... sound very, um, romantic."

"But you could make it from scratch and, I don't know, make the fried tofu heart-shaped. Something like that."

"W-would he even notice that?"

"...probably not," she admitted.

But as the more timid girl's path broke away from that of the rosette and forced them to part, she kept that idea tucked away in her brain. She would try it. If she couldn't give it to him in person she could always add a little card and leave it with Sakura. She'd know what to do.

=_-=-_-=-_-=-_-=-_-=-_-=-_-=-_-=-_=

Snow...

It drifted down into Hinata's hair, settling, glittering, among her silky black strands. It melted, absorbing her warmth, leaving her hair cold and wet. But she enjoyed the snow. Its flakes weren't perfect, but they were still so beautiful-- the snowfall was like the world. Every flake was amazing, but none were perfect and no two the same. Just like people, she thought. We're all moving through time at the same speed- some of us don't die until we reach the ground, but many end when they touch something else that comes sooner. We don't all start falling at the same time.

She shook her head, sending a small cascade of half-melted snow off her hair, and tried to remember where she was going. Oh right. The ramen place.

She had never had to cook anything by herself before, but she was pretty sure that she would need a recipe. She hadn't been able to find one, so she was going to go ask for it.

Clutching the scrap of paper to her chest, Hinata tried to find the ingredients she needed at the village market. Some were out of season, which made them more than twice as expensive,.

"Do you have any crab?"

"Is there an 'R' in 'February?'"

"Yes?"

"Right. Therefore, I don't have any crab."

"Actually, there's two 'R's in 'February.'" Hinata paused. "Does that mean you have -Crab2?"

"...What?"

"Never mind." she scuttled away.

Katez-chan: Short chappy, I know. Sorry.

I reeeeeally wanted to do the "negative crab squared" joke. I've wanted to use that since I found out that crab is out of season in months whose names contain Rs. So if the month has 2 Rs, does that mean crab is out of season twice?

XD Please review, and please no flames! Oh, by the way, if you want fluff at the end, vote for marshmallows.


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